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How To Dress For Your Internship (And Job) – The Tale of the Skintern

Want an easy way to ensure your coworkers won’t take you seriously at your big internship? Wear skin-tight, revealing or suggestive clothing.

In other words, don’t be a skintern.

If you’re like a lot of millennials, “business professional attire” might be about as foreign a concept as wrinkles, midlife crises or mommy jeans. But the last thing you want to do is fall into the trap of being a “skintern,” an intern who wears sexy or suggestive clothing that cause supervisors and coworkers to question the intern’s professionalism, drive and business smarts.

For those of you who aren’t sure what to wear and what not to wear to your internship, here are a few guidelines via the writers over at Slate:

1. Don’t do see-through.

Don’t even try to find an exception to this rule. If you’re going see-through, you need to make it non-see-through by wearing a camisole or another layer underneath.

2. Don’t show skin. Or undergarments.

No mini-skirts, halter-tops, mini-dresses or short-shorts. Save open-back clothing and cleavage for the beach, and your bra and underwear for the bedroom.

3. Your footwear should be sophisticated, too.

Don’t wear four-inch heels or knee-high lace-up boots; these may scream “sexy,” but they don’t say “sophisticated.” Platform sandals and flip-flops probably aren’t the best choices, either. As for sneakers: ask, ask, ask.